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The Mindy Project: What's the Plan, Dan?

Well, ladies, I almost feel a little bad here. After the past two weeks of Mindy Project, you’ve been spoiled with a view directly into Mindy Kaling’s brain, courtesy of our Jess. I can’t offer you the same exciting privilege today. But what I can do is try to map, serial-killer-investigator-style, exactly where the show is going with Mindy and Danny. Because this dynamic has taken on a level of mystery on par with Mad Men—you just don’t realize it because Morgan’s one-liners (“OK I’ve never had a scarf”) and Mindy’s killer outfits (that blue-and-white dress last night!) keep things light.

Really, though: I am so intrigued by the show’s Danny-Mindy strategy—or, as I call it when I’m fangirling too fast, the show’s “Manny-Dindy strategy.” I can’t remember a time when a series has so gleefully plumbed the middle ground between a one-time awkward hookup and a prolonged relationship.

Our perspectives would have reluctantly adjusted if, after their mile-high tryst, the friends and colleagues laughingly dismissed it as a one-time thing, inspired by altitude sickness. But the instant commitment and abrupt breakup, I think, still has our heads spinning—to the point that sometimes it’s hard to concentrate on what’s gone on in the show since. (Tell me you haven’t had a moment when someone besides Danny or Mindy is talking, and all you can think about is what they’re thinking about right now.)

And the show is doing everything it can to combat our fixation. They’ve laid out a buffet of the distractions they know we like best: other romances (Morgan and Tamra), great clothes (the aforementioned blue-and-white look), budding friendships (Adam Pally gets more endearing by the week), and flashy guest stars (Max Greenfield as a first-grade teacher who, judging from the number of flings he has growing, never has time to grade projects).

All the while, there’s a steady current of Danny missing Mindy’s friendship, and Mindy refusing to give into the temptation to accommodate him. She’s heartbroken, but she’s not weak—and while most of her exes are privy to her special brand of post-breakup craziness, Danny is not. She’s shutting him out, and every ducked conversation makes his original motivation for sorta-dumping her—to avoid risking their friendship—seem more futile.

So what does that tell us? If I was a betting man (and let’s face it, a world in which you could play the odds on specific TV story lines would quickly bankrupt me), I would wager that Danny will soon come to a conclusion: He needs Mindy in his life, period, more than he needs Mindy in his life, friendship-only. I think he’s got time to wise up to that before the season finale. So while it seemed for a minute there that we’d missed our chance to watch them date indefinitely—and while writers like Ike Barinholtz aren’t tipping their hand this way—I think we’ll exit season two confident that relationship times are ahead and season three. And I’m ready.

Photos: Courtesy of FOX

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Megan AngeloEntertainment writer. I love talking about TV so much, you'll eventually back slowly away from me at a party.